My fascination with the Fairey Battle aeroplane continues. I came across another manufacturer (Special Hobby) that did a "Battle of France" Fairey Battle in my loval hobby shop. In conversation with a friend I was informed that the Airfix Fairey Battle was a little inaccurate. Instead of technical design drawings the Airfix model designers apparently were given a Painting guide (based on a modified Hurricane diagram) rather than the true technical drawings, This was a simple admin error, but as a consequence the tail and wing areas are too small (see below, I need to make this kit and do a compare and contract):
Post Script: When I see a cheaper copy (than £40 - Kindle could be an option) I will but this book (see below). I managed to flick through a reference library copy. It is a reassessment of the potential of the Fairey Battle. It claims it was more strategically/operationally mishandled rather than being an implicitly bad design.
Note: More successful designs had "two engines" - it seems that it was being asked to perform too much with too little horse power, with too big a crew (three)!